Penticton RCMP is working with Canada Post in an effort to recover a package, containing a rifle, stolen from a man’s front door. Pictured is the Savage 99C rifle, Series A, with a new Bushnell Engage 2.5-10x44 scope attached. The serial number on the rifle is D597026. (Dan Saver photo)

Penticton RCMP is working with Canada Post to recover a package, containing a rifle, stolen from a man’s front door.

The rifle, a scope, two magazines and a sling belonging to Dan Saver was stolen from his Penticton motel room door on May 7.

The rifle and accessories, he explained, had been ordered online and dropped at his front door by a post office delivery person, without Saver being notified. Now, Saver is expressing his frustration at the method of delivery, stressing the package should have been left at the post office for him to sign and receive.

“I had stiff words with the post office supervisor here and said no one in his right mind would leave parcels at the door of a motel room where anyone could walk away with them,” stated Saver in an email.

“The post office should have a position of getting signatures from patrons at both ends like in the old days.”

The Savage 99C rifle, Series A, has a new Bushnell Engage 2.5-10×44 scope attached. The serial number on the rifle is D597026. The walnut material, he explained, has been refinished and the metal is a Cerakoted black finish. An American-made gloss black Leupold scope was also taken.

The rifle was ordered online from a seller in Ontario, and the scope from a seller in Victoria.

According to Saver, in total, the goods are worth about $1100. The bolt-action rifle, Saver explained, is not included in the recent gun ban announced by the federal government.

Saver said the items were purchased for his son as gifts. The rifle, similar to one that Saver shot during the army, was to be his son’s first. As well, the Leupold scope, purchased for another one of his son’s rifles, was to be his first of that quality.

In conversation with Canada Post, Saver said he was told the postal service is leaving packages at the door, knocking, and leaving, due to COVID-19.

He claimed he was home when the post office delivered the package, over four feet in size, but Saver said he never heard the knock.

“I was here that day when he supposedly left everything here, I was here, I didn’t hear anything,” said Saver.

He hopes shipping insurance, totalling $650, will cover the majority of the cost of the rifle.

From now on, Saver said he will be shipping items such as these through couriers instead.

He is currently in the process of formulating a letter to Prime Minister Trudeau and Canada Post CEO Doug Ettinger, asking them to return to the old methods of postal delivery.

“In the 50s and 60s, a guy would pull up in a parcel van and knock on your door, and if you weren’t there he would put a note on your door that said what time he was there, with a phone number, and you would call the post office… the guy would deliver it the next day if he knew what time you were going to be home,” said Saver.

“I think it makes sense… you don’t want anything stolen.”

Penticton RCMP confirmed May 12 that the incident is being investigated and the firearm is marked as missing or stolen. The firearm has been added to their CPIC system, and they continue to work with Canada Post as the investigation continues.

In response to a request for information, Canada Post said while the matter is under investigation, any further comment or clarification, “would not be appropriate”.